Hey everyone and thank you for taking time to read this and more thanks for any help you can offer.

I am completely knew to all this and stuck now. I bought a shapeoko 3, beaver hdz (awesome kit) zero 2 probe and raspberry pi 3 all in the hope of making a nice setup with wireless. Everything is built and put together, all squared up nicely etc.

Well now the software side, I don’t want to just turn on and go as I know something will not be right. Is it easy to set up ugcs and set up a pi to do it all wireless? Can I still use carbide motion and create? I do also have aspire which I purchased for more advanced stuff as time progresses.

I suppose an idiots guide would be good or advice and links to the best versions etc.

As I say, any help whatsoever is massively appreciated as i need to get it all singing together now.

You cannot use Carbide Motion to run the machine with the Beaver HDZ. I recommend Universal G-Code Sender or CNCjs as good options. Feel free to use Carbide Motion to design still. I’d recommend using Aspire, since you bought it, so you might as well get comfortable with it. Personally I use Fusion 360.

I know nothing about using a Raspberry Pi so you will have to search on the forums to find what others have done. There aren’t any beginner’s guide to any of this aftermarket stuff really other than the forums threads and contacting the people who made them (at least for the Beaver HDZ).

If you set up with ugcs on the pi, no you won’t be able to use carbide motion. UGS on the pi will be your replacement for Motion. Don’t be worried though, it’s great.

You -might- want to wait a little bit to do that part though, and get familiar with how the machine works without that extra little bit of complexity. Once you understand the workflow and how that works, it will be a lot easier to add the PI.

Or start using carbide motion on the computer, get the hang of how things should work (you’re just getting started, all the tutorials are for CM), once you’ve got terminology and workflow down, put ugs on the computer, see how that’s different (will be fast), then go to ugs on the pi. Doing too much at once can be a challenge. There’s a pretty steep learning curve to begin with, no sense making it any worse than necessary.

Or start using carbide motion on the computer, get the hang of how things should work (you’re just getting started, all the tutorials are for CM)

Of course, starting with CM means starting with a stock Z and having to bodge if using a non-Carbide 3D probe. It’s a bit steeper first step to jump right to UGS, but it can handle whatever you throw at it.

Of course, for someone starting off in UGS (with an HDZ?), I would highly suggest setting soft limits so the early mistakes are message boxes instead of more physical manifestations. It makes the bumps on the learning curve much less nerve-wracking.